I had a dream a few nights ago. In the dream, I had a speaking assignment at a conference. On the day, I seemed prepared while I watched the speaker in front of me give an engaging speech. Then, it was my turn, but instead of going onto the stage, I hurried to the back of the room. I saw myself searching through my pocketbook for my notes. At the same time, some colleagues stopped by, and we began talking (what?). It seemed that I forgot that I had to present on stage. Then I woke up.

What was that?!

I immediately went to prayer to get the interpretation of this dream. The Lord told me that I am always preparing, but when the time comes to do what I need, I procrastinate because I feel like I am not ready.

You are ready

That thing that you prayed about for what seems like ages. You prepared, you did the work, and studied. You are ready.

Am I ready?…

Yes. What you are feeling is self-doubt. Self-doubt, according to the Online Dictionary is the lack of confidence in oneself and one’s abilities.

I usually procrastinate when the time comes to do the very thing that I prayed and prepared for. The root cause is fear. They say fear is false evidence appearing real. My understanding is that I am believing something about the situation that is not true. I did not like public speaking. I thought that only some people could do it, so I tried to follow them. What do you fear?

Overcome self-doubt

Know who you are

I recalled having extreme self-doubt even with all the experience, knowledge, and preparation I had in my discipline during my PhD defense exam. I knew my experiments in and out, and I knew the literature. However, I dreaded speaking about it in front of the professors. My professor had a standard in delivering presentations – it was boring, plain content. Although I was a storyteller, I did not know this at that time.

Do you know all your strengths and weaknesses? Do you know your potential?

I was so frustrated. I practiced over and over the way he wanted it. But it wasn’t flowing for me. I attempted to present my material to a friend who knew nothing of the subject and I found myself explaining things so she could understand. I incorporated the plain content with the explanation, it was better, but still not flowing.

The thoughts came that I could not do it, I wanted to run, and I wanted to not show up. How could I get out of this?

Know where your help comes from

I cried out to the One where my help come from, the Holy One, the Great I Am, and He answered my cry.
He said, “I will help you.” Isaiah 41:10

The next day, the day of the defense I walked in with confidence, set up, and waited for everybody to come. I felt a peace I had never felt. Relaxed and ready I stepped up and began speaking. All eyes were on me (I don’t like this). To my surprise, it was perfect, and I finished on time. That boring presentation became a captivating story. To God be the glory.

God knows you better than you know yourself

Take off the limits, be yourself, and walk in confidence

I feared delivering the presentation, not because I didn’t prepare or knew the material. I feared I would fail because I was trying to be someone I was not. I limited myself to fit into a mold that was not meant for me. Are you trying to fit in, or be yourself?

When you have done all you can, trust that God will do the rest. You have done the work, sometimes the work is the lessons you learned in hard times. You have studied, you wrote the book or the song you did not think you could write, you started the business, you prepared, and you prayed…you are ready. Step out in the confidence that God will do what He says, he is faithful, and you can trust Him.